Graduation Photography - Gordon College, Wenham, Massachusetts

Well it's hard to believe that my sister has already graduated. Not only does that mean that my sister is done with college, that I'm two years out of college, and that we are growing up...but it also means we are in the next phase of life. Of course to mark that phase my immediate family has two weddings this summer so we are jumping right in all at once.

Gordon College is a non-denominational Christian college about 35-40 minutes northeast of Boston. There are some great small towns nearby, such as Gloucester, Rockport, Beverly, and Wenham...but it is definitely not the "college-town" feel if that's what someone is looking for. But since Boston is not too tough to get to, it's a fun environment since it is more like you are in the woods with access to a major US city.

Anyways, I was able to go back for her graduation and of course take some photos, but sadly Christina wasn't able to join us. Since that is where Christina and I met, it would have been fun to go back together but I guess we will have to wait until a class reunion or something now. It was fun to be back, I was able to catch up with some friends from college, and of course experience that crappy New England weather, which I did not miss at all, and that is even more true now that I am in Florida!

Lauren graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Minor in Non-Profit Admnistration. I think I have all the terms correct, but I may be wrong. Either way, she has a degree! Congratulations Lauren! Now my parents are done putting their kids through school!

Here are some photos from the graduation ceremony and immediately following.

Our Family

Lauren with Grandma and Grandpa

 Lauren with mom and dad

 Lauren with Kyle and I

Lauren with her best friend Kaci

Lauren and Dom

Unexpected graduation attendees!
They left at like 5:30am to make it
on time - I guess Danielle (right) made a
promise 3 years ago to come.

I will post some "senior portrait" style photos of Lauren in the coming days as well! So check back. Have a great weekend!

Weekend Wedding: Palm City, Florida - Part IV

The final day we had the family together, we wanted to take some photos so that they could be passed around the family. Weddings are a great opportunity to take family photos - I think the bride and groom should try to get the wedding photographer to do it, but second best is a family member that loves photography...me!

A few words of advice before I post the photos: When taking photos of family and not officially part of a photo shoot, people are going to expect things to move a little faster. I think when it is an "official" photo shoot with a hired photographer, people expect having to wait around and pose etc. But so long as you are confident and just tell people what to do, they will do it! It is hard to do a makeshift photo-shoot in a place you are just seeing for the first time and don't know if there are any good spots around the property to take photos and also the time is not chosen by you, but it is what it is.

Here are some of the highlights! I had some layout issues with Blogger - so they are boring old straight down...I tried to be different and failed. Enjoy regardless and thanks for looking!

Three sisters-to-be!

Hummel cousins

Christina and Lauren - soon to be sister-in-laws!

Darlene, Sharon, and Robin

My mom and my Aunt Sharon and Aunt Robin

 The three sisters!

Me with my beautiful bride-to-be

Hummel Families

Hummel Cousins round 2

NEXT POST:

Gordon College Graduation

255 Grapevine Rd

Wenham, MA 01984

May 20, 2011

Come back soon!

Weekend Wedding: Palm City, FL Part III - Reception

So I went up to Massachusetts to good ol' Gordon College for my sister's graduation - so before I post those photos I have this post and one more of the family wedding from a week and a half ago! Enjoy!

 

 Kyle preparing for his bestman speech!

Kyle delivering the speech to the newlyweds!

Our last wedding being engaged!

Almost sisters!

Future daughter-in-law and mother-in-law!

 

Hummel cousins

Many of the ladies in the family doing a dance...

Mom and Aunt Robin

Mom and Lauren

Grandma and Uncle Kurt

Weekend Wedding: Palm City, FL Part II

Here are a few more photos from the wedding ceremony in Palm City before I post some reception photos and some family photos from the day after!

 

 Drew seeing the babies turn the corner at the front!

My brother, Kyle, who was the best man.

My parents - my dad was causing a little trouble
with the rose pedals before the bride and groom came out.

More coming soon!

Weekend Wedding: Palm City, Florida

This past weekend I went up to and stayed on Hutchinson Island (Fort Pierce Vero Beach Palm City area) for my cousins wedding. My cousin and his wife live in Illinois, but his parents live in Palm City now - and work as the pastor and pastor's wife at a Presbyterian Church there. Anyways, that is where they got married and why they chose Florida - not just for the warm weather! Though that would also make sense, it is slowly getting warmer and warmer and more and more humid. So I can imagine that summer weddings are not quite as popular as in my native Northeastern culture in New York and the surrounding areas. It was a little rainy for their special day, but since it was an indoor wedding, it didn't put too much of a damper on things. I hadn't seen my cousin for years, so it was fun to catch up with him and also to see Angie again - I had met her probably once before.

As always, it was great to see family and this was the first wedding that my fiance and I were able to attend together as an engaged couple and will also be the last one since we are getting married in just ONE short month! How exciting!

Here are some photos from the wedding - I will post at least one more time with reception photos and the like....

They had the flower girl pulling a wagon with two babies
in it - they were very cute and managed to stay happy the whole time!

He caught me taking a photo!

__________

Top Left: Beautiful bride, Angie, walking down the aisle with her father

Top Right: Reverend Anderson during the service

Bottom Left: My Aunt Robin being ushered to her seat (mother of the groom)

Bottom Right: Officially husband and wife!

__________

So the order is more how I liked it and
not chronological! But the photo
above is during their vows...

They chose to have rose pedals thrown as they made their way to their car - after talking with Christina, we definitely both like the rose pedal idea but will probably go with something like bubbles if we have something at all. It's a little different since we don't have to drive anywhere for our reception! Side note on what to throw at the bride and groom as they exit...bird seed, rice, and any other small projectile seems like such a terrible idea when there is a bride involved. It is easy for the groom (usually) to get something out of his hair or brushed off his tuxedo or suit, but for a bride it proves much more difficult. Maybe some people just really want to feed birds? And yes, I am aware that rice is "so out" since it can injure birds.

It is much more fun to go to a wedding when you have your own wedding coming up. It helps you appreciate all the work even more, and also helps with the final ideas and thoughts about your own wedding. And it's always fun to see people get married!

I will be working on the next post, so stay tuned for some more photos!

Answer to Yesterday's Poll (AKA Night Photography) and Some Fresh Photos from Today!

APPARENTLY some people were "afraid" to vote because they thought they might be wrong! Well that's okay, but next time you definitely don't need to be afraid, especially because the vote is completely anonymous. But to those who voted, thanks for your participation! As Sarah pointed out to me, I actually tagged my Twitter post with "#nightphotography" so if you caught that, well done!

So yes, this photo was taken at 11:30pm. That may shock some of you and any of those that have dabbled with photography at night, it may not be much of a surprise. Now, the answer to your question: Well, how was this at night if it looks like it was during the day?!?

Answer: I took the photo with my 50mm f1.4 lens. Shutter speed: 3.2 seconds, Aperture: 1.4, ISO: 800. Basically I used a faster film speed, which allows you to take a faster photo (I would have needed 6.4 seconds if I used ISO 400 - half the film speed = twice the time). Also, the aperture is how "open" the lens is while taking a photo, the more open = more light coming in, but less focus on everything in view, or the depth of field. Make sense?! If not, that's okay. I would suggest taking your camera out and playing around - if you have a point and shoot you can play around with the ISO - try taking the same shot at night or dusk with ISO 100, 200, 400, 800 and look at the difference! For those using a DSLR, it is obviously much easier to tweak these settings and you can see the difference immediately if you are changing the ISO but leaving the other settings locked.

Also - use a tripod at night. Since the camera is taking a longer photo, if you are not using a tripod, I can almost guarantee it will be blurry!

Here are a couple fun shots I took today since it rained and I love taking photos of drops of water! These two photos were taken in Boca Raton, FL - where it's cloudy today and I'm not sure what to do on cloudy days here...it's always sunny! Click to enlarge to get a better view as always.

And here are some photos that I have taken over the past few years of droplets - these photos were taken in Massachusetts and New York...

Below you can see a little trick I use sometimes with water droplets - the flash. The first shot is without a flash, and the second is with. You can see the huge difference it makes when using a flash with water droplets, since each droplet catches the light from the flash - so it brings out so much detail! Sometimes you can tell you used the flash and other times it just looks cool!

These two photos are examples of using the flash and, for the most part, not really being able to tell the flash was used. They turned out to be two of my favorite photos of water droplets I have taken...

That's all for today. Hope you are having a great day and if you are bored tonight, go try some night photography! Or take some photos of water droplets today (if you can)...I would love to see them - I will even post them on my blog if you send them to me!